The Aussie brand's formula -- easy-drinking wine, popular varietals like Chardonnay and Shiraz, a $6 to $7 price tag and a bouncy yellow-tail wallaby on the label -- has all the makings of a winner. But in just over two years on the market, the brand has exceeded all expectations to become one of the best-selling wines in the United States.

Created specifically for the U.S. market, Yellow Tail sales have bounded past giants like Australia's Lindemans and Chile's Concho y Toro to become the top imported wine in the United States. Without spending a penny on advertising, Yellow Tail has even surpassed well-known American brands like Fetzer, which has been on the market for 20 years.

In the 12 months ending Aug. 30, Yellow Tail Shiraz was the top-selling 750-ml red wine in stores tracked by ACNielsen, and both the Shiraz and Chardonnay were among the top 10 best-sellers. Yellow Tail's growth ranks second only to Trader Joe's outrageously popular Charles "Two Buck Chuck" Shaw line, which costs only $2. (Trader Joe's sales are not tracked by ACNielsen).

While Two Buck Chuck gets most of the credit for putting pricing pressure on the wine industry, Yellow Tail has also been a big factor. It entered the market about $1 cheaper than rivals like Lindemans and Rosemount, forcing those brands to lower their prices and take a big financial hit, says Fredrickson.

Neither of Yellow Tail's creators, New York importer W.J. Deutsch & Sons and Australia's Casella Wines, "had any idea it would get this big, nor was it possible to imagine," says W.J. Deutsch chief executive Bill Deutsch. Yellow Tail sold 200,000 cases in the second half of 2001, 1.7 million cases last year and expects to sell 4.5 million cases this year.

W.J. Deutsch, which is best-known for helping launch Georges Duboeuf's Beaujolais Nouveau in the '80s, hooked up with Casella Wines through the Australian Trade Commission. W.J. Deutsch was seeking an Australian brand to add to its mostly European portfolio, and Casella Wines, which had been making wine on contract for Southcorp, wanted to break into the United States with a proprietary label.

The partners, each of whom own 50 percent of the Yellow Tail brand, anticipated building to a few hundred thousand cases over two or three years - instead, they're selling 10 times that much. To keep up with demand, Casella Wines has become one of the largest Chardonnay grape buyers in Australia.

The brand's torrid growth is particularly impressive given that Casella and Deutsch are both family-owned companies without access to the public capital markets.

If you haven't encountered Yellow Tail, that's because its distribution, which started on the East Coast, is still making its way west. California is only the 10th largest Yellow Tail market, but it is also the fastest growing, and big fourth -quarter promotions by chains like Albertson's and Safeway should boost Yellow Tail's profile here, says Kyle Hensley, W.J. Deutsch's regional manager.

Yellow Tail still has room for growth, says Deutsch. It has been released in only two countries -- the first bottles were sold in Australia last month

-- and it has penetrated only 70 to 75 percent of potential channels in the United States. Its original duo of Chardonnay and Shiraz has been expanded to include Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz-Cabernet and two reserves that sell for $13, a Chardonnay and a Shiraz.

With Yellow Tail's bright colors and stylish looks, it's easy to see why the brand is trouncing competitors.

The wallaby doesn't hurt. At a recent Napa seminar on successful California brands, three of the five case studies featured an animal on their label: Hahn Estates' Rex Goliath with a rooster, R.H. Phillips' Toasted Head with a fire-breathing bear and Ironstone Vineyards' Leaping Horse.

While customers are drawn to Yellow Tail's label, the wine itself gets credit for repeat sales. It's easy juice for Americans to like -- exuberantly fruity with enough dimension to make it interesting. It has balanced acidity, soft tannins and, unlike most under-$10 California wines, little to no oak.

"People say that they start with a glass or two and drink most of the bottle without noticing," says Casella.

A behind-the-scenes factor underlying the Yellow Tail blitz is W.J. Deutsch's broad distributor network, which encompasses all 50 states. The majority of those distributors don't represent Southcorp, which makes Lindemans and Rosemount, so they were "looking for a brand that could help them take part in this great Australian growth," says Deutsch.

Now new brands are imitating Yellow Tail. Click Imports of Seattle, for example, which introduced Fat Bastard wines to the United States, has just released JackaRoo, a $7 brightly flavored wine from Down Under. Not coincidentally, JackaRoo features kangaroos on the label.

What does the future hold for Yellow Tail? The answer is murky, with the biggest question mark hanging over an impending price increase of 50 cents to counteract weakness in the Australian dollar. The reserve wines are also at a tricky price point. The Greg Norman brand is the only Australia wine in that range that has done well, Deutsch says.

To bolster the brand, Yellow Tail's owners plan to abandon their no- advertising policy once the wine's national rollout is complete.

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